


It's the end of the world. Again.

by pineapplesquid



Series: Jane the Vampire Slayer [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Freeform, Crossover, F/M, Post-Avengers, SHIELD, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 02:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pineapplesquid/pseuds/pineapplesquid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes her over 72 hours to get home, after the battle, and she's not happy about it. Surely, they could have used a Slayer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's the end of the world. Again.

**Author's Note:**

> Hah, managed to remember to finish and post this before I go see Thor 2 this afternoon, while I can still pretend that Thor would have been around for some time after Avengers.

With no cell reception and the slowest internet she’d ever met, it was two days before Jane even heard anything. The first of the gossip was vague to the point of uselessness, even without her imperfect command of the language. The first mention of a big fight in New York had her running to her computer, almost exactly 48 hours too late. Forty minutes later, after she’d realized the futility of trying to load all of the news pages and tried just three, she knew as much as any of the public. Well, any of the public who couldn’t watch any videos of the footage.

It took another 24 hours or so for her to get home. She’d been able to read through the lines; SHIELD was never mentioned by name, but they were the only ones who could have been targeted like that. And there was only one person she knew of who was heading up a project on alien technology with the potential for the kind of power that could cause that. Thor was everywhere in the news, easily identifiable to her even though nobody could name him, but she couldn’t find anything anywhere about Erik. But even her most frantic protestations couldn’t get her to the airport before the ferry the next morning, and the little puddlejumper could only island-hop so fast.

She was sitting on the plane, fretting and wondering how the internet at the next airport would be, when she caught a few lines of the conversation behind her.

“—nice to get to travel out of his job.”

“Right? Especially when it’s places like this. Of course, I always say that if they want him to do _more_ work what they should do is buy me a ticket to somewhere else. . .”

Jane froze and then began cursing silently as the last piece fell into place. She’d been suspicious of the urgent request for her help at the station, but she’d assumed it was from the _other_ business. Her secret identity was only so secret, after all, and it wouldn’t have been the first time that a watcher elsewhere had discreetly contacted her for help under the cover of work. She’d gone looking for trouble when she arrived, but found nothing aside from a not-so-secret feud between two rival gangs of grad students.

But of course. It wasn’t that they needed her there. It was that SHIELD wanted her somewhere else. Somewhere out of the way while her maybe-kinda-boyfriend and her watcher and everybody else saved the world. Again. While she was stuck off on an island not even knowing that something was going on, much less helping.

She sat brooding on SHEILD’s high-handedness for the rest of the flight. It was absurd, to think they could just stick her somewhere safely out of the way. If anything had happened to Erik because she hadn’t been there. . . or if she’d missed her only chance to see Thor again. . .

The moment the plane set down at LaGuardia she was on her phone. One ring, two—and then, to her immense relief, Erik’s voice. “Jane?” He sounded tired, and worried. “Aren’t you supposed to be on an island somewhere?”

She ground her teeth. “Well, I was, until I finally managed to find out that something was happening. Where are you?”

“My apartment, they’ve just let me go home.”

_Let_ him go home? Oh, someone had a world of Slayer hurt coming at them. “Stay there, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Stepping off of the jetway she caught sight of a blond head and her breath caught in her throat. She had a moment just to look at him, head and shoulders above everyone else in the terminal, blond hair longer than she remembered but the sheer vibrant _life_ of him unchanged. He turned his head and saw her then, and seemed to grow even larger with joy. “Jane!” he boomed, heads turning as he plowed through the crowd, sweeping her up in a hug for a long kiss that left her head spinning. For a moment, in his arms, everything felt better than it had in months, safe and secure. Then reality returned, and he slowly let her go, looking slightly worried. “I am sorry,” he said as he peered down at her face, “I did not mean to presume that you would want—“

She interrupted him by pulling him down for another kiss. “No, no, I am so happy to see you,” she whispered. “I’m just worried about other stuff.”

His smile was relieved. “I cannot allow that,” he proclaimed. “You should never have to worry. I will take you out for a feast, as befits our reunion, and you shall tell me what has occupied your time since last we met, and I will tell you how you have grown even more beautiful.”

It was a hard invitation to turn down, but once she said she needed to see Erik, his expression turned grave and he offered to take her immediately. As much as she demanded to know what had happened, he refused to answer, saying that she needed to talk to Erik about it herself.

It took, predictably enough, approximately forever to shed Thor’s SHIELD escort, find a cab and get to the apartment Erik had taken when they started with SHIELD. They’d been offered company housing, but he declared he was too old for a dorm, and Jane that she needed her privacy, which was true enough. She left Thor in her own apartment and ran up the couple of floors to Erik’s.

When they finally arrived she stormed through the door, staring hard at Eric as he appeared around the corner. He didn’t look injured, but. . . “What happened?” she demanded. “Nobody’s told me anything, all I know is what’s in the news, because somebody decided I needed to be packed off to safety like a good little girl.” She forced herself to stop before she was yelling—Erik didn’t deserve it, and he looked so tired as he came into the living room. She took a few steps forward and reached for a rare hug, holding him tightly until she realized that he was having trouble breathing. “Oh, oh, I’m sorry. Now, sit down and talk to me.”

By the end of his story she was shaking with anger; a bottomless fury at Loki, not only for trying to destroy the world but for the _shame_ in Erik’s eyes, and rage at SHIELD for locking her out. She ignored his protests that he’d already been to medical as she inspected the back of his head, finally pronoucing herself satisfied and sitting back.

“I’m sorry, Erik,” she said lowly. “I should have been here.”

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault, Jane. I agreed that you needed to go when you got that call. And if you had been there, he might have gotten you too.”

“Hmph,” she sniffed. “No excuse. If anyone’s going to hit my watcher really hard in the head, it’s going to be me.”

He laughed, just a little, and for the first time in their conversation he didn’t sound bitter as he replied. “I know. I’m sorry that someone infringed on your rights. Well, and that you weren’t there to do it sooner before I—it caused so much damage,” he continued, his voice going darker.

“No.” She was firm. “Not your fault. Erik, it’s even in the Handbook, nobody is responsible for what they do when posessed. He’s a god, even. It was not your fault.”

“Yes, yes, I know. I just. . .” he trailed off. “Well, it’s done now. Thor’s going to take him back to Asgard soon, and hopefully we’ll never see him again. Unless you want to sneak into SHIELD tonight and end things more permanently.”

She forced herself to stop and consider. It was tempting, so tempting, and no less than he deserved, but—“Too risky,” she concluded regretfully. “High chances of getting found out by SHIELD, and we don’t even know if we have a weapon that could kill him. I mean, I could try to get Mjolnir,” she trailed off, considering strategies. “No. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Erik nodded reluctant agreement. “I just wish you’d gotten a chance at him before SHIELD did.”

“Me too. Erik, this can’t happen again,” she said seriously. “I absolutely cannot get shipped away whenever there may be danger. _Especially_ if they’re not going to ship you off too. SHIELD can’t do this again.”

“I agree,” he said. “But I’m not sure how to stop it.”

She bit her lip, thinking. “I have to tell someone.” He started protesting immediately, but she ignored it. “Erik,” she interrupted him. “This _can’t_ happen again.”

He sighed. “I know. But Jane, you can’t tell SHIELD. They sent a nuke to take out the city. You can’t trust them.”

“No,” she agreed. “Not them.”

 

Thor looked ridiculously out of place, sitting on her sofa in full armor. Ridiculous, and yet perfect. She lost a moment in pure aesthetic contemplation, but forced herself to focus as she sat down next to him and took his hands. “Thor, honey,” she began. “There’s something I need to tell you. . .”

She didn’t mention wielding Mjolnir, though. Some things he didn’t really have to know.


End file.
